Crain’s Spotlights SAIC Alum’s Culinary Mold-Making Business

Crain’s Spotlights SAIC Alum’s Culinary Mold-Making Business

Crain’s Chicago Businessfeatured the unique enterprise of SAIC alum and master mold maker Michael Joy (BFA 1992). In 2002, Joy co-founded the Chicago School of Mold Making, one of the few businesses in the United States specializing in silicone molds for culinary professionals. Shortly after graduating from SAIC, Joy began casting molds for architectural restoration projects, toys, and trophies. After meeting a founder of the French Pastry School in Chicago, Joy expanded his expertise to include mold making for the pastry and savory arts. Now, chefs at top-tier restaurants around the world turn to Joy and his creative engineering to help shape their dishes into edible sculptures.

For more than 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers​, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program consistently ranking among the top programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries​, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate​, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, Jeff Koons, and LeRoy Neiman.